Health Happenings

Okay, so I know I said I would post some good health news a while back. I forgot. Sorry, but I have some more to add now which reminded me. First, I had my yearly visit with my gastroenterologist in June and I expressed to him how great I have been feeling since my visit last June. How I feel like I don't have a disease at all. Of course I do but since I take my medications regularly and have been having great results I just don't feel like it. So he let me taper my medications down. I am so happy to go down two less pills a day. It's a really good thing. Even though he added 1000 mg of calcium over my multivitamin which is two pills a day and nulls the two he took away. But I don't care. It's two less ulcerative colitis pills I have to take which is a great thing. And I'm super happy about it!

Now on to the latest health news. Roger and I went to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio yesterday for his semiannual MRI and visit with his radiation/oncologist. We knew it would be the same as usual but it was even better. It looks like the scar tissue/junk that is still in Roger's brain where the tumor was removed has gotten smaller by 1 millimeter. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it is! We never thought it would go away or get smaller so fast. Roger had his craniotomy in March 2006 and his radiation ended at the end of the summer that year. So it's been three years and we are already seeing a decrease. Awesome!! The edema (aka fluid accumulation) hasn't changed much but like I said, we know it will take years and years. So to have the scar tissue area decrease in size is another great blessing. And three years cancer free! I think we are on cloud nine! We can't help but praise the Lord for yet again taking care of us.

And last but not least, Roger has decided to get serious again about his physical recovery from the paralysis he experienced after the craniotomy. He was rear ended in my vehicle a month or so ago and it aggravated his hip which is still not strong. So not only did he get a referral for physical therapy for that, but we also bit the bullet and purchased a Wii and a Wii fit. We started the EA Active 30 day challenge this week. And it's great. It's a really good workout for Roger and will help him to build his strength back up in his right hip and leg muscles. Which means we will soon be able to go for long walks and rides on our bikes. I can't wait to get back on the trails on our mountain bikes together. I will continue to do my regular morning workouts and workout with Roger in the evenings so we can do it together. Although the Wii EA Active workouts are good, they are kind of like a warm up for me so I'm not going to stop my other workouts. I recently went up to 2300 meters twice a week in the pool and have added weight resistance twice a week to my workouts. But the Wii is so much fun too. I can totally see Wii bowling party nights at our house in the future. Watch for your invitation!

One More Step And A Praise Report

Today we completed another step towards the construction of our new house. We met with our design counselor for five hours and made about 40-50 upgrades and options to our house. It was a lot of fun in the end but kind of scary since you're making decisions from very small samples and you won't get to see the real result for six months. But it also added a little bit of excitement to the process. We were quite shocked that we came in under our budget with everything we needed, wanted and desired so we added two luxury items and we were still just over our budget by a tiny bit. So we are completely ecstatic about it and can't wait to see the finished project. You can see a few of our selections in a set called New House on Flickr. We will be posting pictures as the construction takes place.

Our next step is to finalize our loan approval and then another meeting to make sure the builder has all our selections correct before they break ground. We met with a real estate agent last Thursday and were very pleased with him and what he had to say about our current home and putting it on the market. We are going to wait a bit before we do that so we have a chance to stay in our home as long as possible. Stay tuned for more news on the house.

On an even greater note... Our friend Yoli, who had the double mastectomy a couple weeks ago, received her pathology reports today and all except one showed no sign of cancer!! The doctors got it all out and the chemotherapy did it's job. The only pathology report that showed cancer cells were from the inner breast which was removed in the surgery and there's nothing to worry about there. Praise the Lord it's all gone! She is still recovering but doing well. She will begin radiation therapy in about a month. Thank you for praying for her, her family and her doctors.